As the Media Research Center reported earlier this week, the Big Three Networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) continued to spread the fake news that Senate Republicans were cutting Medicaid despite the Congressional Budget Office’s report the proved otherwise. CBS News dropped their reporting to a new low Thursday evening when they reported that the cuts could lead to the deaths of people suffering from opioid addiction. “Please, don't do it. You're going to have the blood of a lot of innocent people on your hands,” one addict told reporter Adriana Diaz on CBS Evening News.
“CBS News has learned Senate Republicans hoping to win support for the ObamaCare replacement have added another $45 billion for the treatment of opioid addiction,” declared Anchor Anthony Mason at the start of the segment. “However, that's just a fraction of what Medicaid covers right now, so what happens if Medicaid is cut drastically?”
Mason’s statement about drastic cuts to Medicaid as 100 percent a fabrication and distortion of the facts. On page 13 of CBO’s recently published report on the Senate’s health care bill, there’s a graph (Figure 2) that clearly shows there is no “drastic” cut to Medicaid. There is a reduction in future spending, but the amount of spending does, in fact, increase between 2018 and 2026. That means what’s currently being spent doesn’t decrease.
Diaz talked with two Ohioans who were recovering opioid addicts who needed a drug called Vivitrol that costs $1,200 per dose and without it, they could die. “They get it for free, because like 2500 other patients here, they qualify for ObamaCare's expanded Medicaid program,” she added. “But the proposal in the Senate rolls back Medicaid expansion, and that could potentially cut this treatment center's Medicaid funding by 75 percent.” Again, that’s not true at all.
“[The Medicaid expansion] allowed us to get people into treatment, which was key. Otherwise, they would be on waiting lists, people would overdose,” the CEO of Oriana House, rehab center, told her. According to Diaz, 4,100 people died in Ohio last year because of the opioid epidemic. “What would you say to the folks in Washington who are talking about cutting back on Medicaid,” she asked one of the recovering addicts. “Please, don't do it. You're going to have the blood of a lot of innocent people on your hands,” they responded.
And to make her accusations against the Republicans even more morbid, she highlighted just how many more people would die in the coming days:
The body count is so overwhelming here that the medical examiner's office had to call in a mobile morgue to help house victims. It will be here through the July 4 weekend, Anthony when another surge in deaths is expected.
This report by CBS News was truly disgusting. Not only was it based on the lie of cuts to Medicaid, but it also portrayed the GOP as the bringers of death to those in need. It also exploited the dire situation addicts, recovering addicts, and their caregivers find themselves in by stoking the fear that they soon could be left to die. But for CBS News the end justifies the means when they’re pushing a narrative. And this outrageous hyperbole came just a little over two weeks since Congressman Steve Scalise was shot by a radical leftist and the political world called for greater civility.
Transcript below:
CBS Evening News
June 29, 2017
6:46:08 PM EasternANTHONY MASON: CBS News has learned Senate Republicans hoping to win support for the ObamaCare replacement have added another $45 billion for the treatment of opioid addiction. However, that's just a fraction of what Medicaid covers right now, so what happens if Medicaid is cut drastically? Adriana Diaz takes a look.
[Cuts to video]
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: So let's talk a little bit about when you first heard about Vivitol.
ADRIANA DIAZ: For the last 13 months, 33-year-old Eric Henman has been coming to Oriana House, a drug treatment center in Akron to help end an opioid addiction that could kill him.
ERIC HENMAN: You go from feeling dope sick to wanting to kill yourself to living life again.
DIAZ: Henman and Leah Kohen, also a recovering heroin addict, credit their progress to counseling and monthly injections of a drug called Vivitrol, which costs $1,200 a dose. They get it for free, because like 2500 other patients here, they qualify for Obamacare's expanded Medicaid program.
LEAH KOHEN: Once my addiction took hold and I quit my job, I was uninsured. I had nothing. So without Medicaid expansion, I probably would be dead.
DIAZ: But the proposal in the Senate rolls back Medicaid expansion, and that could potentially cut this treatment center's Medicaid funding by 75 percent. Jim Lawrence is CEO of Oriana House.
JIM LAWRENCE: 98 percent of our folks weren't eligible for Medicaid. Now, 98 percent are.
DIAZ: What did Medicaid expansion allow you to do?
LAWRENCE: It allowed us to get people into treatment, which was key. Otherwise, they would be on waiting lists, people would overdose.
DIAZ: The opioid epidemic claimed 4,100 lives in Ohio last year, 308 here in Akron. What would you say to the folks in Washington who are talking about cutting back on Medicaid?
KOHEN: Please, don't do it. You're going to have the blood of a lot of innocent people on your hands.
[Cuts back to live]
DIAZ: The body count is so overwhelming here that the medical examiner's office had to call in a mobile morgue to help house victims. It will be here through the July 4 weekend, Anthony when another surge in deaths is expected.
MASON: Adriana Diaz in Ohio for us tonight. Thanks, Adriana.
